New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert and Joyce DiDonato live from Philharmonie de Paris

If you are in the mood for world-class artistry, join the New York Philharmonic on its European / Spring 2015 Tour, with Alan Gilbert and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, on medici.tv on Saturday, April 25 at 8:30 pm (Paris time).
The picture below was taken during the journey of the orchestra from Amsterdam to Paris.

This concert will be the first by an American orchestra at the new Philharmonie de Paris venue. The performance, one of 12 on the New York Philharmonic’s spring tour of Europe, will feature Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Nyx, Ravel’s Shéhérazade (with DiDonato as soloist) and Valses nobles et sentimentales, and Richard Strauss’s Suite from Der Rosenkavalier.

A Sparkling Baroque Opera

Young French conductor Raphaël Pichon conducts with Rameau’s Dardanus his first staged opera at Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, on Wednesday April 22, with the Ensemble Pygmalion he founded in 2006. Inspired by ancient mythologies, Rameau’s opera stages the thwarted loves of Iphise and Dardanus- one of Jupiter’s sons- and his rival Antenor.

Through an extraordinary combination of mythological and supernatural themes, developed in an enchanting ballet, Rameau leads this lyric tragedy to its climax. Stage director Michel Fau explains below how he chose to set the opera in a revisited version of Louis XV of France’s era, especially “sparkling and festive” he says.

The opera will be available free of charge on the site for 90 days following the original airdate. It is playable worldwide on all internet-enabled devices, including smart phones, tablets, computers, Chromecast and smart TVs.

medici.tv is the official webcast partner of the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition! ‪

In a few days from now, you will be able to follow the full XV International Tchaikovsky Competition streamed live from Moscow and St. Petersburg. From June 15 to July 3, watch the performances of over 100 contestants – chosen among the most promising pianists, violinists, cellists and singers worldwide – and be the first to discover the stars of tomorrow, whose careers will be launched thanks to one of the greatest classical music competitions in the world!

Mozart, Fanny Mendelssohn and Schubert

Insula Orchestra, this musical ensemble founded 3 years ago by Laurence Equilbey, offers an evening dedicated to Mozart and Schubert, but also to the rarely performed composer Fanny Mendelssohn. Sister of the German romantic composer and one of the rare XIXth century women composer along Clara Schuman, “Beau Génie” (beautiful genius) -as Felix Mendelssohn nicknamed her- wrote one single symphonic piece, the Overture in C Major, which will be played by the orchestra.

But before this happens, Laurence Equilbey conducts Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra, an ambitious work in vogue at that times, honoring the viola part. French solist Antoine Tamestit, who will also perform on medici.tv in a chamber music concert with Cédric Tiberghien on April 1st, at the auditorium du Louvre, accompanies the orchestra together with italien violinist Giuliano Carmignola. In performing afterwards Schubert’s Symphony No. 4 “Tragic”, Laurence Equilbey and Insula Orchestra pay tribute to one of the leading piece of the romantic repertoire.

The concert will be available free of charge on the site for 180 days following the original airdate. It is playable worldwide on all internet-enabled devices, including smart phones, tablets, computers, Chromecast and smart TVs.

Strauss and Taiko

Live from Parisian Théâtre des Champs Elysées, enjoy a unique concert dedicated to both composers Richard Strauss and Maki Ishii. The latter’s work will highlight the japanese drum taiko, performed by the Waseda Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and soloist Eitetsu Hayashi, who is leading a brilliant career as a percussionist, following his debuts at Carnegie Hall in 1980.
Exclusively made up of non-professional musicians, the orchestra will be lead by Kazufumi Yamashita.

Learn more before the show!
Here is Eitetsu Hayashi performing at the 2000 Berliner Waldbühne. The complete concert can be enjoyed on medici.tv.

The concert will be available free of charge on the site for 90 days following the original airdate. It is playable worldwide on all internet-enabled devices, including smart phones, tablets, computers, Chromecast and smart TVs.

Mad Rush in Montréal

On March 7, live from Maison symphonique de Montréal, Kent Nagano will conduct the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, in a program of modern and contemporary works, highlighting the genius of composer Philip Glass. Glass himself will perform Mad Rush, a work for piano solo he wrote in 1979 on the occasion of the Dalai Lama’s visit to North America.
The orchestra will also play his Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and orchestra and a piece by Paul Dukas, The Peri or The Flower of Immortality and a world premiere presentation of Kiya Tabassian‘s latest piece (and a command of the OSM), Vers où l’oiseau migrera ?.

Get prepared:

Philip Glass, Looking Glass : From New York to Paris, follow the tracks of the father of repetitive music: Philip Glass.Kent Nagano and OSM : a concert given in February with pianist Emmanuel Ax, in a repertoire of works by Moussa, Mendelssohn and Brahms.

Following the live webcasts, free replay of the concert will be available to online audiences for a further 90 days on medici.tv, which is playable worldwide on all internet-enabled devices, including smart phones, tablets, Chromecast, computers, and smart TVs.

Staged for the first time 138 years ago by the choreographer Julius Reisinger at the Bolshoi Theatre, the ballet Swan Lake was not a success. However Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece became one of the most famous ballets all around the world.

The ballet, that found inspiration in European and Russian myths, leads the audience in a fantastic and poetic universe, with splendid choreographies and sceneries. The story of Siegfried and Odette (The White Swan) became a real myth.

Tchaikovsky’s score is itself a masterpiece. Often performed, it remains one of the most popular works in the symphonic repertoire.

Several famous interpretations and choreographies were attributed to the ballet. After Julius Reisinger’s choreography at the Bolshoi Theatre, the choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov in 1895 was a great success. Afterwards, Vladimir Burmeister’s choreography was more anchored in the Soviet tradition. But Rudolf Nureyev’s choreography (1963) remains probably the most deeply moving version, in particular with the incredible work he led on the psychological dimension of the ballet. She remains in the repertoire of the Opéra national de Paris, often staged.

Charles Jude, who was an étoile at the Opéra national de Paris, said about him : “Nureyev eliminated all that was old-fashioned in it, he gave a real role to everybody and not only to the soloists. His ballet is built like a dream.”

Three days of music

It was with a free webcast of Joyce DiDonato’s Carnegie Hall recital on November 4, 2014 that medici.tv launched a major new partnership with the venue, bringing some of its most important events to home audiences worldwide.

Now, following transmissions of several more top performances, the Carnegie Hall collaboration continues, when medici.tv presents free, live webcasts of three public master classes given by DiDonato as part of her Carnegie Hall Perspectives residency.
Over the course of three days, the renowned mezzo-soprano will mentor four young opera singers (sopranos Alison King and Narea Son, mezzo-soprano Kayleigh Decker, and tenor Gerard Schneider), as they rehearse solos and duets from operatic arias, including masterpieces by Mozart (Don Giovanni, La clemenza di Tito, Le nozze di Figaro) and Handel (Serse, Giulio Cesare), in Carnegie Hall’s Judith and Burton Resnick Education Wing.

Following the live webcasts, free replay of the master classes will be available to online audiences for a further 365 days on medici.tv, which is playable worldwide on all internet-enabled devices, including smart phones, tablets, Chromecast, computers, and smart TVs.